Summoner ji

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[[Observer in the Veil] is showing interest in your magical capabilities]

[[Observer in the Veil] has gifted you 100 Coins]

Ashton stared at the notification in front of his eyes. The 'Observer in the Veil'. A constellation that really just liked any sort of magic and mystics in any capacity, as far as Ashton remembered. It wanted to become the Summoner's sponsor for a while, but after continuously being turned down, it stopped focusing on them all that much.

Though, why was it even here? Ashton could maybe understand them hanging out somewhere in London or Birmingham, but... Drakewood? Sure, Drakewood wasn't just some random village, it was still a decently sized town, but there also wasn't anything special about this place, beside some random, unsubstantiated myths that King Arthur, the definitely real historical figure as everyone over the age of 60 in this town would like to make you believe, was originally from here. It was a legend that nobody from outside of Drakewood had ever heard of either.

At the end of the day, Ashton figured that there was a lot he still didn't know about how constellations saw the world. They probably had numerous 'windows' open across this world. Not that it was important - he couldn't spend too much time just lost in thought.

"So you're one of the constellations I've heard about?" Ashton asked. He obviously couldn't show that he knew too much about what was going on.

[[Observer in the Veil] is curious about the source of your abilities]

'There it is,' he thought, staring at the screen. But well, he had already thought about how to respond to that question. He smiled at the system screen, "I have my ways."

[[Observer in the Veil] is dissatisfied with that answer]

[[Observer in the Veil] has gifted you 100 Coins]

[[Observer in the Veil] wishes to know the source of your abilities]

[[Observer in the Veil] points out that no such magic should have been part of this world]

Ashton sighed, "You think a few coins would be enough for me to tell you?"

No new notification seemed to appear, so Ashton just got back to harvesting the lizardmen's magic stones.

The Observer would come back, that was for sure. Their curiosity was like none other's, so as long as Ashton could pique their interest, he would probably get quite a few good things out of it. Maybe even a few bonus quests with decent rewards, though even just coins would be great.

The more Ashton grew and the more he stood out from others, the more constellations would pay attention to him. Frankly, they didn't have the power to mess things up too much. One of the few ways they could exert that power was by becoming someone's sponsor, which would allow them to dictate someone's actions to a certain degree, depending on how much power they give that person. Beyond that, sometimes constellations could have an effect on main quests, but that shouldn't be possible in the first phase of quests yet, so it was nothing to worry about.

So, basically, as long as Ashton was smart about it and didn't put up with the constellations' bullshit, they couldn't do anything, no matter how suspicious he was. It wasn't like Ashton did anything wrong - he was the victim in every part of this situation.

But out of all of this, the most important part was that the Observer in the Veil didn't recognise Ashton. Well, to be totally fair, he looked very different now than he did back then. Plus, his body in the other world was technically constructed with magic in the first place and was quite different to a regular human body by the time the council invaded there.

It really wasn't clear exactly how constellations saw the world, so maybe, the way Ashton was right now was completely unrecognisable. Or, which was equally as possible... they simply didn't care enough about a mere summon to bother remembering him.

Either way, that was a good sign. It allowed him to start out at a neutral point with constellations. After all, the Summoner had made some serious enemies amongst the constellations, even those that seemed to have genuinely goodhearted intentions. Or rather... especially those. The Summoner was a vile creature that did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, and a lot of the things they wanted to do were utterly... horrific.

Being able to start from a blank slate with the constellations was probably the best thing he could have ever asked for going forward.

A little while later, Ashton had extracted all the magic stones and checked their bodies for anything else useful. Every once in a while, lizardmen were born with special scales that contained a bit more mana than usual. He didn't have any luck, but he should keep an eye out from now on. Those scales were pretty useful for brewing potions, one of the next things that Ashton had to get to.

Frankly, though he had tried to hold back on the physical combat side of things, Ashton had hurt himself quite a bit. Yeah, his body was a bit sturdier after levelling up a few times, and he had the experience to push through and persist despite these injuries, but if he kept on going like this, he would be absolutely screwed.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ashton couldn't wait until he healed normally. For that, he would have to get fully treated at a hospital, but those will be overrun by either monsters or people by now anyway, and he didn't want to take away the space for people that really needed medical attention. On top of that, it would take a while for his wounds to heal over enough that he didn't have to worry as much.

And waiting for healers to pop up would take too long as well. So, Ashton had two choices. One, summon a spirit with healing abilities. And two, stock up on potions.

Frankly, he had to do both, anyway, but there was one main problem with the summoning part right now. Ashton's contract capacity. According to what he knew, most summoners would make contracts with a few beings and continue practicing with them, growing their contract capacity over time. He would still do that, but it would take a few weeks of active practice, or a few good hidden items, for him to grow that capacity to the point he wanted.

Ashton still had space for one or two more contracts right now, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to currently use that space on a healer if potions were an option anyway. The healing spirit that he wanted to contract needed things like potions or certain medicines as its offering anyway, providing much more powerful healing in return, and for these sorts of wounds some potions would do the trick, so... that was his plan for now.

The only thing that Ashton needed were the right materials. Some of them were things he could gather from monsters, but mostly, he had to hope that the environment already started to change with the introduction of mana.

New minerals and plants would start to pop up sooner or later, and sooner would be just that much better.

He needed to set up a decent supply network for himself, and get his hands on some actual magic items, even if he had to make them himself like the improvised magic compass.

Amongst the items that he did end up grabbing from the shopping street was a small souvenir map of Drakewood for the handful of tourists this place actually got. He may have grown up here, but after spending a lifetime away, he could barely remember the way home when he returned yesterday.

"Urgh..." he groaned loudly, "It's just been a day? I would've guessed it's been at least a week since all of this started."

He shook the thought out of his head and looked down at the map while starting to walk through the streets, with the Salamander currently resting in Ashton's vessel.

"This here is market street, and... this must have been the small park where I killed the orc. Then this over here is where my apartment is, and..." Ashton muttered quietly, using the dormant Pen of Insight to mark anything that he could remember. Most importantly, there was one place that he still had to figure out.

"Where the hell was Sam's company again..?" he stared at the map, squinting annoyedly. The worst part was that he couldn't even remember what the company's name was, so he wasn't able to ask people either. The only part he still knew was that it had something to do with software engineering, since that was what he studied back in university and why he wanted Sam to get him a job there.

"I wish I had a seeker spirit with me right now..." Ashton groaned, orienting himself a bit by looking at the nearby street names. While he didn't know the exact location, he had a rough idea. It was somewhere in the city centre, so it should be fairly close to market street.

Not that this helped him, since there were tons of random companies around here.

"... Maybe I should have asked the dickhead trio. I'm pretty sure they knew Sam as well..."

Ashton sighed and put the map away. Ashton knew for a fact there was something he could use as reference, something that Sam kept talking about that he loved going to during his work breaks. Back then, he wasn't particularly interested, but now Ashton was beating himself up for not listening to his best friend when he was speaking sometimes.

"Stupid, self-absorbed asshole..." Ashton groaned to himself. But just then, he heard a sound. It came from one of the nearby alleys. At first, he thought it was monsters and was about to call back the salamander, but then he heard voices.

"-just hold out a bit longer, we'll- we'll get this figured out, I promise!"

"... No, this is... I can barely feel my arms and legs anymore... I'm done for, just... just leave already..."

A third voice quickly yelled in response, "Shut up! We're not leaving you behind! I'd rather die than just leave you!"

Ashton rolled his eyes, "If you keep being that loud, you are going to die," he walked into the alley. The trio turned around to him, startled.

"Who are you?!" the loud one of the three asked.

"Just someone passing by. What happened to him?" Ashton pointed at the guy sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall with his arms limp by his side.

"... We were trying to clear the quest, and apparently one of the monsters we were trying to kill was venomous, and..." one of them replied, and Ashton raised his brow.

Venom, huh? That was a common ingredient in tons of potions. He quickly squatted down and took a look at the guy sitting on the ground. His shirt's sleeves were cut up, and some kind of barbs or thorns dug into his skin. There was still something stuck in there, too.

"Excuse me for a second," Ashton quickly grabbed the small thorn, though one of the two others was trying to pull him back.

"What are you doing you-"

"Trying to figure out what it was that got your friend, so hands off," Ashton snapped his fingers, calling the Backpacker. The pair took a step back, startled, thinking that a monster had snuck up on them, "Some paper and a bottle of ink."

The backpacker quickly provided both. The ink was really simple, just regular ink he got from the store with a ton of magic stones ground up and mixed into it. Not perfect, but good enough for now.

Ashton looked at the pen, "Time to wake up."

He linked the Pen of Insight to the ink and a piece of paper, and then focused on the small thorn. Quickly, the pen began to autonomously write a short description on the paper.

---

Blue Moondew's Thorn

Grade - Rare

A thorn belonging to a rare species of carnivorous plant, the Blue Moondew. It is hollow on the inside to hold a small amount of venom, and easy to snap off to bury itself in the plant's victims.

---

"Okay, I've got good news and bad news for you guys," Ashton smiled, standing up. He knew this plant, "First, the venom is purely paralytic and wears off in an hour or so, it's not very strong. Especially considering you flinched in pain when I pulled the thorn out, so... you clearly didn't get a strong hit."

The trio looked at Ashton, startled, and the two friends looked down at the third, who seemed a bit embarrassed.

"And, uh... the bad news?" he asked.

Ashton shrugged, "It's just a plant. A carnivorous plant, but... a plant. It doesn't count as a 'creature' as far as the system is concerned. And don't get me wrong, there are plenty of plant-type monsters, this just isn't one of them."

"Wait, so we tried to fight that thing for no reason?!"

Ashton laughed a bit, "Yeah, sorry, you did fight a plant for no reason, and then lost. Anyway, more importantly... head over to market street, they're building a camp there. It looks like they've got some tactics figured out, so you should be able to get help in clearing the quest."

The three seemed relieved and extremely happy to hear about this. As the two that seemed 'okay' helped the third off the ground, Ashton looked at them. And he was more than happy he asked.

"Where did you find this thing anyway?"

"It was in the botanical gardens... there were a few different things there, and some of them were definitely monsters. The quest ticked up when we killed them, at least."

Ashton smiled. That was it. The botanical gardens were the part that Sam had so excitedly told him about, since they were just a few minutes away from the office.

With the guidance of the trio, who were headed toward the relative safety of market street now, it didn't take long for Ashton to find the botanical gardens. Of course, he encountered a few more monsters on the way. He wasn't exactly careful to avoid them either. Some goblins, this time with more varied appearance and weaponry, some lizardmen, and the trails of some bestial monsters.

But then, he finally got to his first destination. If something like a Blue Moondew appeared in here already, then surely there were going to be other magical plants that he could use to make potions. It was pretty hard to figure out exactly how fast the world would adjust. In the other world, mana was already a thing before the system, things just got a lot worse and more chaotic, so Ashton knew that he couldn't exactly use the timeline of that world as a reference.

"Sorry, bud, but I won't be able to use you in here," Ashton pointed out, looking inward into his vessel. The salamander who was currently still resting in there was eagerly waiting to be called on again, but when Ashton said 'no', it curled up in a ball, like it was pouting, "It's too dangerous, there are too many plants that could get damaged. I don't want this place to burn down."

The salamander didn't listen, and just stayed curled up. Maybe he should set up a campfire for it to rest in tonight, that should cheer it up a little. But still, he couldn't just go flinging flames around in here.

Rather, he wanted to call on the help of the other contract that he had formed earlier. This seemed like a good place to practice with the lesser undine.

He had the Backpacker give him a bottle of water and quickly opened it up. What he needed to sustain the salamander's body was some kind of 'fuel', in this case he decided to go for a simple briquette. But what undine needed was a lot simpler than that. Just a bit of water that it could use to sustain its body. At the elemental's current level, it would need something as pure as possible, so Ashton would use distilled water, but at higher levels, even swamp water should be usable. Once summoned, the water would start evaporating, though much faster than normal of course, and once it was all gone, the elemental would be automatically unsummoned.

Undine, who had been resting inside of Ashton's vessel since the contract was formed, quickly came out and entered the water. Right now, it was almost invisible in there, Ashton could just see some small outlines where the water was moving weirdly.

And soon, around half the bottle worth, so about half a litre, flowed out of it and soon took up the form of this particular lesser undine - a small koi fish.

"Thanks for the help," Ashton smiled. Since the undine couldn't cause any accidental damage like the salamander, Ashton could just let it out like this. But he quickly took control of the rest of the water inside of the bottle.

It was fairly easy to do, especially now that Ashton's channel skill had levelled up a few times. It didn't just increase the range he could manipulate things in, but it also increased his level of control.

With a slight wave of the hand, the small orb of water was flung around. Now, due to the malleability of water, this was the perfect way to practice the limits of his channelling. Especially because he needed to get something very specific out of this to do what he wanted here.

As Ashton moved the water around, the faster it moved, the more it naturally elongated, with some of the water lagging behind the front. Ashton tried to make it thinner, trying to turn it into something like a thin blade that he could use to cut into these plants at a distance. While most of them wouldn't be monsters, exactly, that didn't mean it was safe to get close to them and just cut them with a normal knife. There was a reason why that guy earlier ended up temporarily paralysed.

As Ashton entered the botanical gardens, he continued practicing. He even tried to cut into some of the mundane plants, obviously keeping it to things like tall grass, but it didn't even work. He managed to break some blades of grass, but he didn't 'cut' them. The water simply didn't get thin enough.

"Why isn't it working?" Ashton clicked his tongue, looking at the undine, "Got any tips for me?" he wondered, but the elemental just blubbered away, swimming through the air around Ashton's head.

"I guess not," he sighed, and decided to take a step back. He didn't have the same level of control as the Summoner did. He couldn't just make complex shapes with a blink of an eye, or use a whole lake as an offering for an undine. No, he had to improvise. Take advantage of the natural habits of this magic. And the habit that this water magic was showing was... that it was hard to control all of it at once. Ashton controlled a small part, and the rest lagged behind.

If he just stretched the mass of water out a bit into a thin stream, and continued controlling just the front, then he could turn it into a whip. Ashton waved his hand in front of his body and then flicked his wrist. The water snapped through the air, tearing through the blades of grass that Ashton was aiming for.

"Not as clean as I was hoping, but good enough," Ashton smiled, moving the water back into the bottle for now. There was no reason to waste the undine's power when there was nothing nearby he needed to cut down.

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[[Observer in the Veil] is impressed by your apparent proficiency]

Ashton smiled a little as he read the message, but otherwise ignored it. He figured that the observer was still watching. That was good, actually. Like this, he could hopefully make him even more curious for later. Ashton had something planned for when he met up with Sam.

He moved through the paths of the botanical gardens, and it was clear that there really was already something affecting this place. The council only invaded yesterday, but everything was completely overgrown.

Roots were breaking through the ground, and vines were growing along the pavement and the walls of any of the buildings. The flowers and small trees along the sides were growing onto the path and making it a bit harder to get through. This place really was changing extremely fast. Actually...

"Backpacker, get me the compass."

The spirit quickly appeared and started looking through his bag, soon handing the improvised magic item to Ashton. His goal wasn't to look for more mana wells right now, so he had put it away. But it looked like there was one very close as well, most likely inside of the botanical gardens. That would explain the fast change. It just meant that Ashton might need to prepare a bit better.

He wasn't sure if he could take on the boss that was hiding out here now, not without some preparations. Considering where it was, it would be some kind of plant-type monster, and those were annoying beyond belief. Either, they restricted movement by tying you down, or they dealt with poison. With the surface-level wounds that Ashton had right now, being tightly restricted would be bad, and he had no means to fight off poisons right now. He should make an antidotal potion first.

Luckily, there were a ton of potion-ingredients around here. Due to the nearby mana well, even the usually mundane plants were going to have plenty of magic in them. While they weren't plants that were common in the other world, Ashton had to improvise all the time anyway.

One of his big tasks was making potions, medicines, ink, food, fixing clothes and items, and doing any other task that the Summoner felt they were too good for. Of course, most of the time these tasks were done in cooperation with another summon that had related magical abilities, but Ashton was still usually the one overseeing those processes. The amount of random recipes stuck in his head was ridiculous, and most of them were completely and utterly useless. But a few would come in useful.

Ashton looked around, using the Pen of Insight to inspect different plants that he either didn't recognize or wasn't sure how useful they were.

Magic-Saturated Rose

Grade - Uncommon

A simple, mundane rose that was deeply saturated with magic, accelerating its growth. Its growth was boosted due to a nearby mana well.

---

Magic-Saturated Grass

Grade - Uncommon

Simple, mundane grass that was deeply saturated with magic, accelerating its growth. Its growth was boosted due to a nearby mana well.

---

Magic-Saturated Oak

Grade - Uncommon

A simple, mundane oak tree that was deeply saturated with magic, accelerating its growth. Its growth was boosted due to a nearby mana well.

Ashton read through the texts written down by the pen. With this, at least he knew that there was no need to inspect most normal-looking things around here. He could just collect useful-seeming plants and use them for potions later on.

For the most part, he just had to worry about the more magical-looking plants. Mostly, Ashton wanted to find the Blue Moondew. There was something he needed to confirm.

While there were similar plants here as there were in the other world, they weren't exactly the same. There weren't oak trees, for example, or at least not in any of the places Ashton had been to. While there were flowers that looked similar to roses, they didn't look the exact same either.

But somehow, a plant called 'Blue Moondew', a name that he actively recognised, being a direct translation of its name in the other world's language. Considering the paralysing venom, he was extremely positive it was the same plant he was thinking of.

And soon, he could confirm it as well. There was a familiar, sickly-sweet smell in the air. It almost smelled like... the sweetest honey-glazed pork you could imagine. After all, what this plant was attracting wasn't just insects, but larger animals and monsters out for meat. And somehow, it must have attracted that trio earlier as well.

Ashton followed the scent, walking down the paths toward one of the greenhouses. The windows inside were cracked open and broken, with roots and vines having pushed through them with apparent ease. Though there was something moving in there, vines swaying back and forth, it didn't seem like the Moondew was in there.

Instead, Ashton continued following the paths and the vines that were coming out of the greenhouse, and the sweet smell became stronger and stronger. Before long, Ashton spotted some dead monsters on the ground. A handful of goblins and ratmen. The blood was fairly fresh, and judging from their injuries, they were probably killed by that trio earlier. The monsters did have some thorns stuck in their arms and legs, though, so what happened was clear.

The moondew had partially paralysed the monsters, and then the trio came along and killed those monsters.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. It's pretty clever, actually, whether it was intentional or not," Ashton pointed out, smiling a little as he looked at the moondew in front of him.

The plant, usually quite small, had grown to the point where some of its many light green tentacles stretched up taller than Ashton himself. On each of the tentacles, a number of dark blue, hair-like spikes were growing out, with each one having large, fist-sized droplets of liquid hanging off them.

A thin membrane was surrounding each droplet to keep it together. If you were careful enough, you could just pluck them off, and the membrane would slowly harden once detached, letting you collect a lot of the 'venom', or in this case it was maybe more accurate to call it poison, very easily.

Ashton opened the bottle of water with a smile on his face, pulling out the whip of water.

"With this, I should be able to make something pretty good," he said, as he made the whip snap at one of the massive carnivorous plant's tentacles.

Remove

The water whip snapped at the blue moondew's tentacle. It wasn't exactly a strong attack, but it just had to be powerful enough to make one of the tentacles snap off. He didn't really need more than that, for now.

The long stalk snapped off and slowly fell to the ground. A few of the actual 'droplets' were broken like this, but a fair amount survived. If he could, Ashton would love to replant this and use the moondew as a sort of defensive tool for some of the more central camps that would pop up starting the next few quests. Ashton still wasn't sure if the quests worked the same way as he was aware. He sure as hell hoped so, but the council wasn't exactly as predictable as you may think.

Especially considering that it seemed like they were trying to turn this place into a 'danger zone', the quests could ramp up in difficulty a lot. Though, they were already pretty damn hard. Killing five creatures wasn't exactly easy for the average person.

As Ashton used his staff to try and pick up the wriggling, detached tentacle on the ground, the moondew attempted to swing at him with the others, as if it was trying to defend itself. Of course, this was just a stimulus response - it wasn't consciously trying to attack him, so once Ashton moved away a bit and left it alone, it would calm down. He didn't need to cut it down any more than this. The one tentacle was more than enough of what he needed for now.

Once he was far enough away, Ashton started plucking the droplets from the tentacle, giving them to the Backpacker. Luckily, in there, things weren't exactly 'touching', so even fragile things were fairly safe in there.

And, something else happened as he gave the droplets to the Backpacker.

[Contract | Backpacker - Level 2 -> Backpacker - Level 3]

With this, the space in the backpack increased by one more cubic foot, allowing space for some more droplets.

Once the droplets were all gone, Ashton used his kitchen knife to just strip all of the thorns off the tentacle, and then coiled up the tentacle itself, tying it together with some sturdy string. With everything packed away, Ashton could continue gathering some more materials.

Different plants, flowers, grasses, more and more things that seemed both familiar and unfamiliar.

For one, there were plenty of plants that were very clearly also around in the other world. Maybe they weren't exactly the same, and there were some tiny, slight differences, but either way... it looked like these plants were put here on purpose, that much was clear.

In a world that already had mana, changes to the world could happen much faster, but in one without it, it was likely that the council had to help a little bit. But the important part was this. Some of these, even if not all of them, were plants that were native to the other world. They were around even before the system appeared there.

If these plants could be put here... then creatures that were native to there would appear here as well. And that very idea made Ashton shudder. It wasn't like everything there was horrible. Rather, the native people of that world were fairly similar in strength to humans, and lived in similar societies as well. They struggled with the quests as much as humans would.

But even if the average, everyday person was weak, the monstrosities that were lurking around in some parts of that world were something Ashton would prefer not to ever see again.

Especially...

"No, there's... no way," Ashton shook the thought out of his head. For the time being, he had all the things that he needed to make at least a few potions. Now, he just had to get to a safe spot to actually do it.

Preferably, he would like to find Sam now. Since his company should be nearby, that should be the first place for him to look.

Now... finding that place was the actual problem. Obviously, it had something to do with software engineering, as Ashton already knew. Or at least, it had spots for a software engineer.

Now... what else did he know about what kind of company it would be?

Ashton and Sam were almost completely opposite in personality.

Sam was that outgoing sort. Successful, sporty, popular, and actually one of the most genuinely kind people around. He'd have a short conversation with someone he had never met before in the hall while waiting for maths class to start, and then weeks later could remember every detail of the conversation. Even all the teachers loved him, because of course they did. He aced every single class and did tons of extracurriculars. He was a model student in every single way.

And then... there was Ashton. A gloomy, antisocial freak with, at best, two people he could call friends, one of those being Sam. He would be on his own, listen to music, read books and comics, and scroll random forums on his phone. The only category he could ever beat Sam in was how much of a geek he was, and even that just barely.

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Seriously, Ashton felt seriously jealous when Sam started getting traction in the games industry, and -

"That's it! Games, it was a Game Development Studio!"

That would narrow it down immensely. Yeah, not a ton of people would know about it, but if he could spot the right kinds of people, they would probably know where he needed to go. There must be a lot more people walking around right now than before, considering that they had to head out for the quest.

And the people that would be looking for monsters to kill around here might be exactly who Ashton was looking for.

Making sure to mark this place on his map as a point of interest, Ashton headed back out of the botanical gardens. On his way out, there were a few more monsters that were lured in by this place. Kobolds, lizardmen, ratmen, goblins, nothing too powerful right now. There still wasn't enough mana in the air to sustain anything too strong right now.

But by the time he got a minute or so away from the gardens, undine back inside of Ashton's vessel for now, he saw a small group of people in the distance. There were six of them. Mostly folk around Ashton's age or a bit older, but one older gentleman was with them, too. He seemed a little out of place, almost.

With a smile, Ashton jogged over toward them, waving, "Hey there! Do you have a moment?"

The group snapped their heads toward Ashton, startled, "What are you doing?!" one of them asked, holding themself back from outright yelling at Ashton.

And it was easy to see, as well. There was a group of dead lizardmen on the ground, with just one skink leftover. It was half-dead already, just barely holding onto the broken spear in its hand.

In a moment of complete desperation, the lizardman ran right at Ashton. Because of course, the others had largely surrounded it already, and it was about to die. This single, weak human should be an easy target in comparison to these six. And if it could kill him, then it might be able to get away in the confusion!

But... all that Ashton had to do was twist his staff around and sweep the lizardman's feet away. It fell down onto the ground, and Ashton just pushed his staff against its chest, keeping the weakened monster down.

"So? Are you gonna kill this thing, or not?"

The group looked over at the older gentleman, who nervously came walking forward. He was holding some kind of sharp metal pike. It looked like it was for fishing or something, though Ashton had no clue how he would have gotten it around here.

Either way, the man nervously stepped forward, still surrounded and backed up by the other five, and stabbed the pike through the lizardman's forehead.

His eyes seemed to focus on something mid-air as a system message appeared before him. He looked around at the small group.

"I finally completed this damned quest!" he exclaimed, breathing out a sigh of relief, before turning back to Ashton, "But you! Be careful out here! You've gotten lucky this time, but not all of these monsters are as weak as this one!"

Acting like an expert just because he finished the first quest? That haughty attitude, and smug expression although this success was handed to him? And all that aimed at a complete stranger?

It felt so quintessentially human, it was utterly endearing to Ashton. His smile growing even wider, he replied with a nod, "Right, right, I'll be more careful from now on. And congratulations on clearing the quest! I only just finished it a few hours ago myself."

One of the guys in the group looked Ashton up and down, "And you were... all alone?"

"Oh, no no, I got help from some friends of mine as well," he replied. It wasn't a complete lie, either. Technically.

The naiad had been unsummoned by now, though, so it made sense that it looked like Ashton was fully alone.

One of the remaining five looked down at Ashton's hip, "Hold on, you picked the lantern as your tutorial reward?! Are you insane? What about the backpack? You clearly need one!"

Ashton shrugged, "It seemed useful."

One of the group just let out a slight laugh, before the others looked at them. They just smiled for a moment, "What? It was funny."

"I've got a question for you guys. Do you know some kind of game development studio around here? My friend works there and I wanted to see how he's doing."

All six of them, including even the older man, stared at Ashton.

"Studio? Do you mean Calibur Games?"

"Riiight... That was it," Ashton remembered - him and Sam spent hours at the pub laughing about that name back when the studio was founded. Them playing into the whole Arthurian legend thing was just... funny.

"We actually work there!" one of them explained, "Well, the five of us. This man here is..."

The older man scoffed a bit, straightening his tie. For some reason, it looked like he was still trying to keep up some level of business decorum, while the other five were wearing what they could.

"I work in the same building as these kids, for Goldenhoard Investment."

"Oh, you're an investment banker!" Ashton replied, and the man nodded smugly.

"That I am."

"Well, too bad that money's useless now, huh?"

The man's smile disappeared, "... What?"

"You know. We've got these 'coins' now. The time of the Great British Pound is over."

As though the man hadn't even thought about this until now, for some reason, he just began to stare into space, while Ashton focused back on the rest of the group. He was ecstatic that he found the perfect group of people.

"In that case, I'm sure you know my friend. Do you know Samuel Penn?"

"Do we- You're friends with Sam? Wait, are you... Are you Ashton? Ashton Garling?"

A surprised smile on his face, Ashton quickly nodded, "Yeah, that's me! Did Sam tell you about me?"

"Did he? The guy doesn't stop talking about how worried he is, we barely managed to stop him from running out on us to get to your flat."

Ashton let out a long sigh, "I told him I'd come find him... Whatever, so is he still at the building?"

One of the five quickly nodded, "He is! Come on, we'll lead you there."

Happy that things worked out so well, Ashton followed along with the small group. Though, one of them kept staring at him.

"Everything alright?" he wondered, and they slowly nodded.

"Yeah, just... you're the guy that no-showed his job interview yesterday, right?"

Ashton shrugged again. It didn't feel like a big deal anymore, "Yeah, I guess I did."

"What were you doing? That was before... all of this, right?"

"Well..." Ashton thought about the best response for a second. Should he talk about the mountain of food he ate and then threw up? That he took a one-hour long shower? That he was just trying to enjoy wearing clean clothes for once? No, his answer should be much simpler than that, "I guess I just felt like living a little before the end of the world caught up to me."

After walking for just a few minutes, the group reached a fairly newly-constructed building. Though everything else around here was visibly older than anyone left alive, this building looked like it was just finished a few years ago. It was almost jarring.

A few trucks were used to build a barricade out front, with tons of desks acting as gap-fillers. It was just directly around the entrance though, seemingly being just one more layer that would stop monsters from intruding.

Seeing the group approach, some people opened up the back of one of the transporter, helping everyone inside, before opening up the side door and letting them back out within the confines of the wall.

"Did everything work out?" one of the people standing guard asked, and the investment banker quickly nodded his head.

"Yes! I completed the quest, as planned!"

"Perfect. That means we've got most people covered now," the 'guard' let out a relieved sigh, before laying eyes on Ashton, "And... who are you?"

Ashton stared back for a moment, before remembering he was being spoken to, "Right, me, sorry. I'm Ashton, a friend of Samuel Penn?"

The young man in front of Ashton smiled immediately, looking around, "Oh holy shit, no way! You found him?!"

One of the five people working at Calibur shook their head, "No, the other way around... he found us."

"I told Sam I'd be here before the third quest, I don't know why this is so surprising. I'm just a little early."

"Uh... right. Anyway, just come on inside! Sam's upstiars, in the Calibur meeting room. Sorry, these guys need to head back out with the next people that still need to get their quest finished, so..."

Ashton shrugged, "All good, I'll find it. Thanks for getting me here, you five."

Without hesitation, Ashton walked past everyone and stepped into the building. The foyer was filled with people preparing more barricades or makeshift weapons, as well as those that were getting a few simple tips on how to actually use those weapons against the monsters. Shockingly, it seemed like there were a few folk here that actually knew a thing or two about how to fight.

'It's just been a day, and they already adapted this fast?' Ashton thought to himself. A few of the people down here were looking over at him, though they didn't mind him too much and soon continued to what they were already doing.

Ashton approached the stairwell. The sign said that Calibur Games was on the second floor, so nothing too high up.

He climbed up the stairs and headed to the office space's entrance. The moment he pushed the glass doors open, he could hear a sound from across the space. Another door had been pulled open.

"Holy- Ashton!" a man yelled out, quickly followed by footsteps. It was Sam, running right at him with a broad smile on his face. He was really a hulking figure of a man. The moment he got to Ashton, he stretched out both arms and pulled him into a deep, strong hug, "You're okay! Thank god you're okay!"

Ashton flinched heavily the moment Sam touched him. For one, he was still in a fair bit of pain from last night. And also... it had been so long since anyone had hugged him. It was unnerving. Ashton wanted to enjoy it - this was his best friend he was talking about, after all. But it was just too much for him right now, and so he slowly pushed Sam away.

"Take it easy, big guy. I'm happy to see you as well."

More happy than Ashton could ever describe in words. Sam had been his best friend since they were kids, and now after a lifetime stuck in hell, Ashton could actually see him again. If he could remember how to, he would have started to cry by now.

Of course, to Sam... they probably just met a few days ago. He looked down at Ashton. It was like he was trying to see if he was hurt anywhere. But he rather noticed how weird he looked first.

"Since when did you dress like this? And where is your stuff, did you not grab a bag? Wait, did you pick the lantern as your reward for the tutorial?!"

Ashton glanced down at the small metal and glass box, "Is it really that bad? I think it looks pretty nice. Oh, and I picked up these clothes at Market Street yesterday."

"Wait... Market Street? Are people over there okay?"

"Eh, I wouldn't say anyone's 'okay' right now, but they've built some walls like you guys did," Ashton explained, looking around, "Speaking of, it looks like you've really got stuff under control here."

Sam laughed, "Fuck no, I'm reeling. I am not made for this much responsibility."

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"You sure? It looks way more organised than I would have expected."

The smile on Sam's face slowly faded, "Right, dude... I have to talk to you. Come with me for a second."

Sam quickly turned around, leading Ashton down the hallway and into one of the offices. The wall was made of glass, so it wasn't exactly 'private', but it was better than nothing for a one-on-one conversation. Ashton could guess what this was about.

But he wasn't really focused on that. Rather, he was more curious about this room. The sign on the door said 'Samuel Penn - Art Director'. There was one of those large drawing screens on the desk, and a ton of drawings and sketches hanging on the walls. The parts that were actual walls, of course.

"Neat space you got here."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, thanks? Just sit down, okay? I have some stuff to ask you," Sam pointed at one of the swivel armchairs on the opposite side of the room to the desk, and Ashton quickly dropped down on it. It was so comfortable, he'd love to melt into the leather and never get back up, if he could.

Sam also sat down, but he leaned forward nervously, while Ashton started spinning the armchair around in a circle.

"How did you...? You know..." he started, and Ashton looked back at him whenever he could, still spinning the chair around.

"Yeah?"

"How did you know about the- Jesus Christ, can you fucking stop already?" Sam jumped up and grabbed the armchair, stopping Ashton. The two stared into each other's eyes for a moment, "I'm not going to beat around the bush. How did you know about the system coming, just from that earthquake?"

Ashton slowly opened his mouth, trying to figure out what to say, almost instinctively trying to find an excuse. But... he didn't want to lie to Sam.

"... Do you have any... 'constellation' watching you?"

"Hm? Constellation? What do you mean?" Sam asked, not quite sure what to say, "Do you mean those weird message that keep popping up? The... uh, 'Shadow behind the Throne'?"

Shadow behind the Throne... Ashton didn't know a lot about that constellation. The Summoner was a complete loner, not counting their summons, so that constellation was never interested. The one thing that he knew was that they enjoyed when someone was pulling the strings behind the scenes. Or rather, when a 'leader' was only such in name, and someone else had the real power.

If that was the case, it looked like Ashton was right to trust in Sam. He was basically the leader of this place, then, or at least close to being it.

Ashton sighed a bit, "Okay, that makes it pretty annoying."

The Shadow behind the Throne was also an incredibly annoying trickster. Though they enjoyed watching when others pulled the strings behind the scenes, they kept trying to do so as well, but failing miserably. They caused a few wars between people sponsored by certain constellations.

Ashton let out a loud groan, "Observer. I've got a proposal for you."

It took a few moments, in which Sam just looked around confused, until a message appeared before Ashton.

[[Observer in the Veil] is listening to your proposal with half an ear]

Of course they were still there. Ashton figured they never left, and were just quietly watching so that they could learn more about him while he let down his guard.

"If you block any constellations, including yourself, from viewing this space for the next twenty minutes, I'm going to tell you how I learned magic," Ashton suggested, and once more, nothing happened for a few moments. Sam was just confused what his best friend was yapping about right now.

"What's-"

"Shush," Ashton interrupted him, and a new message quickly appeared.

[[Observer in the Veil] makes a counter-proposal]

[You have a New Quest! [Bonus Quest - The Observer's Proposal]]

[Bonus Quest - The Observer's Proposal]

[The [Observer in the Veil] has heard your words and instead offers a counter-proposal. Instead of first providing their help, they wish to hear the truth and will then decide. Your explanation will be blocked from other constellaitons]

[Goal - Explain to the Observer how you know magic, to their level of satisfaction]

[Reward - 15 Minutes of Private Conversation]

[Failure - [Observer in the Veil]'s boredom]

Ashton stared at the message surprised. A bonus quest? Constellations didn't usually throw things like this around. Of course, this all did come with a bit of a risk. More constellations would be paying attention to something like this. The Observer in the Veil wasn't exactly a weak or unknown constellation, after all. And them giving out a bonus quest? That would be big news very fast.

'I guess I keep forgetting how crazy it is to know legitimate magic on earth at this point,' Ashton thought to himself, as he looked at the message hovering in front of him.

[Do you wish to accept the Quest? [Yes]|[No]]

As Ashton selected 'Yes', he could feel something in the air change. As if all the noise from around him just disappeared. Even Sam, sitting right in front of him, was basically muted.

And so, he started, "I have knowledge of a lifetime in another world. One that has already undergone the advent of the system. In that world, things like magic were as common as breathing. I was going to leave that knowledge behind, but with the system coming here as well... I had no other choice."

That was it. He didn't need to say any more than those few sentences for a new message to appear in front of Ashton's eyes.

[You have completed the [Bonus Quest - The Observer's Proposal]! The reward will now be executed]

[You have 15 Minutes to hold a private conversation that no higher being may listen in on]

"That easy, seriously?" Ashton let out a laugh, staring at the messages. It seemed like the Observer had some kind of way of figuring out if someone was lying or not. At the end of the day, whether it was vague or not, the idea that someone here already knew of the system and of magic before either was introduced here, most have been enough to 'satisfy' the constellation more than enough, automatically fulfilling the quest's conditions.

That being the case, Ashton had to hurry. He looked at the man in front of him, his best friend.

"We have fifteen minutes to speak. So... don't interrupt me when I start."

Sam looked back at Ashton, confused, "Man, what the fuck is even happening? What did you just do?"

"I can explain that part later. Just... listen. Yesterday, at 8:56am, I disappeared. A few seconds later, I was back. In those few seconds, I became the tool of a being I can only call by the name of 'Summoner' now. That Summoner forced me into a world called Lumia."

Sam stared at Ashton for a few moments. A wry, nervous smile slowly appeared on his face.

"Uh... What? You were in another world? Like some kind of isekai thing?" Sam asked, and Ashton just shrugged.

"I guess. But please, just listen to me, no matter how ridiculous it sounds."

Though Sam didn't know what to say, it didn't happen often that Ashton was serious like this.

"As I just said, I was called to this world called Lumia. It's mostly earth-like. Deserts, oceans, forests, all that stuff. Lumia was a little larger than earth, though, I vividly remember the moment when I realised that. That's not really important, though. When I was called there, it was to be the Summoner's assistant? Apparently, humans are really malleable and can grow into any direction, theoretically, so that's why one was picked. I don't know why it was me, though, even now," Ashton avoided eye-contact with Sam, picking at his cuticles. Sam stayed silent.

"The Summoner had me do all sorts of random tasks. Literally anything that they couldn't be bothered to do themself. I lived alongside the other summons, interacted with them... befriended them. There were some nice moments here and there, but it was as nice as the idea of making a friend in the deepest pit of hell. You've got a friend, but... it's still hell."

"Why was it so hellish? It sounds more like a fantasy story that people would want to escape into," Sam figured, but Ashton just laughed and shook his head.

"Escape into? No, no, definitely not. Sam, I wasn't there of my own free will. Most normal summoners will create contracts of equality, and most sorts of summons will return back to their 'home' when their payment runs out. We weren't equals - we were slaves. We weren't given offerings, we were just given the bare minimum mana we needed to function and that was it. We were tools that the Summoner needed for his sick experiments."

"... Experiments?"

"The ways of learning of new methods of contracting beings is complicated. With Spirits, you can usually figure out the method through word of mouth through contact with others. Once you break down a certain element to its fundamentals, you should be able to summon a corresponding element. But... that wasn't the case all the time. Some beings require extremely specific series of actions, and severe payments to even answer the call, without even forming a contract. Death, destruction... torture. Sometimes, I was forced to help them execute these things, and at other times, I became the ingredient."

Ashton was trying not to go into too much detail, but even with just this, it was clear that Sam didn't believe him in the slightest.

But right now, it was an easy thing to prove, at least to some degree. Ashton grabbed the water bottle he was carrying, and placed it down on the table in front of his friend.

"I know you're tired, but would you two mind helping me out?" Ashton asked, looking inward at the undine. The elemental blubbered something in response, before quickly inhabiting the water in the bottle.

"Tired? I'm not tired... Man, the hell are you saying? Who are you talking to? One of these constellations?" Sam's concern was clear, and quite reasonable. Even Ashton could tell that what he was talking about sounded like the ramblings of an insane man.

But even so, he just shook his head and looked down at the water bottle. As the undine began to swim within the bottle, Sam seemed even more confused. The bottle started shaking a bit, and soon, the water climbed out on its own.

As a small koi fish made of distilled water flew around Ashton's head, the summoner unhooked the lantern from his belt and placed it onto the table next to it. There was still a coal briquette inside, so as Ashton caught the invisible spark in the air and brought it to the fuel, the salamander happily appeared from the flames within the lantern.

Ashton leaned back, putting his left leg over his right while grabbing his staff that was leaning against the swivel chair. He held it over to the right, and a small figure appeared, as if it had been hiding behind the chair this whole time. It took the staff, placed it inside of the backpack that was way too small to fit its entire length, and Ashton looked over at the Backpacker with a smile, "Thanks."

"Uh... I... What... What the fuck is going on?" Sam jumped up from his seat, taking a step away from those three creatures that he couldn't comprehend.

"These are two elementals. Lesser Undine and Lesser Salamander specifically. And this is a Backpacker. I have contracts with one more elemental and one construct."

"What the actual fuck, man?!" Sam started pacing around the room, "So, okay, there's weird shit going on, I get that, but there's really magic? Fucking magic? Other worlds? I mean, I guess we knew that part already, but still - you were what, just summoned randomly? And then you..."

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He stopped. Sam stared at Ashton, who had an inkling of what was going on in his friend's mind.

"I don't... really want to talk about any details. Not that we have the time to, anyway. We have about 8 minutes left, and I want to fill it with the important stuff," Ashton explained, playing with the undine a bit. It swam through the air like it was water, and decided that it liked to move through the gaps between Ashton's fingers, so the two were just doing that right now, with Ashton creating the exact paths the elemental needed.

Sam watched this happen. He could tell that this was real. That it wasn't something he was simply imagining.

He squatted down in front of the table, taking a closer look at the salamander. It noticed Sam approach, and jumped up against the lantern's glass.

"He's cute."

"Oh, I don't know if they're a... 'he' yet," Ashton pointed out a bit awkwardly, "Summons usually reveal more about themselves as our familiarity with each other rises."

"Well, fair enough... But holy shit, man. You can use magic? Like, magic?"

"Yes, I can use the magic of my summons by channelling their abilities. And technically I should be able to figure out how to use magic myself, but I'd rather not spread thin like that for now."

Sam looked up from the lantern, "And... you say that you had to make... sacrifices for these?"

"Oh, yeah, but nothing like... bad. I'm not going to form contracts with beings that ask for terrible shit if there is any way at all to avoid it," Ashton explained, calming down Sam a bit, even if the last part still worried him, "Elementals just ask for something to form their body, so fuel for the salamander and some pure water for the undine. My other elemental needs something that took 'effort' to make, so I just feed them food. The backpacker needed a, well... backpack as a base, so I just gave them mine, and then I need to give them items to actually use their services. So I gave them my phone."

"Your phone? What do you mean?"

"You know, my smartphone," Ashton said, looking over at the backpacker who had already taken the small object out of the bag and was playing games on it again, "That one."

"Don't you need that?"

"Why would I? Mana is scrambling signals anyway. Plus, I haven't used a phone in like... a hundred years? Give or take? I'm happy I remembered how to answer your call yesterday."

"No, but... That means you didn't get the message about the community?"

Ashton narrowed his eyes, "What? What do you mean?"

Sam was about to reply and explain, but Ashton stopped him, "Wait, hold on, no, we've already gotten distracted. We don't have a lot of time. I need to finish speaking, all of this is stuff I can tell you later. My head is just scrambled right now because I'm holding myself back from having a breakdown- Dude, it's just so good to see you again, seriously, you have no idea how much I missed you."

Sam smiled, holding back a slight laugh, "I'm glad you're okay, man. Alright, tell me what you wanted to say first."

"Okay... First. The interdimensional council cannot be trusted, obviously. They will do anything they can to twist things in a way where they're saving us at some point, but that's not what they're doing. The entire questline is designed in a way to turn us into... products. The perfect army, the best craftsmen, whatever."

"... They're making sure that just the best of the best survive?"

"Exactly. The tutorial was to get rid of all the weakest. The sick, the injured... those too old or too young to fight back on their own," Ashton said, staring down at the ground. He didn't want to show Sam the expression he was making right now, "And then, in this first quest, the rest of the people are forced to adjust quickly. Even if they're monsters, killing something isn't easy, but it gets easier when your life is in danger, and when you've already done it."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, it's... scary. The first one was the hardest, but the other four..."

"Right. In future quests, they're going to make us split up even more. They'll put us into situations where leaders will come forward, where those with power rise to the top, and those that can't pull their weight just... fall further behind," Ashton looked back up at Sam, "Again, we're products. Not only is the council going to sell us to the highest bidder once we beat all the quests, they're also trying to make the process to get there as exciting as possible for a few annoying bastards."

Flinching, Sam looked around, as if he was worried someone was watching, "The constellations?"

"Yes, the constellations. And don't worry, they can neither see nor hear us. Anyway, constellations are... honestly, I still don't really know the exact details. They're higher beings. Not gods, inherently, but close. Some are truly good, some are utterly evil. Some are here to watch us squirm, others want to help us succeed and survive. There's also plenty that are just scouting us out to buy us up later at the end. Having one become your 'sponsoring constellation' basically means you give them priority rights to acquire you if they want to, while also allowing them to take part in what a lot of them see as just some 'game'."

Ashton called the summons back into his vessel for now, and then put his feet up on the table in front of him. Sam flinched a bit, staring down at Ashton's boots.

"So what should we do, then? Do you know all the constellations, and could tell us what they want?"

"No, not at all. I'm lucky that I managed to draw the attention of one that I do know, but there's far too many for me to have heard of them all. But I will tell you what I know when it comes up. For one, do not trust the Shadow behind the Throne. They're a manipulative freak that just wants to turn you into someone that controls this settlement from the shadows."

"Why would he do that?" Sam asked as he pushed Ashton's feet off the table, quickly wiping the surface down with a small towel.

"Because he thinks it's fun."

"... Seriously?"

"Mhm," Ashton replied, looking at the message floating next to him.

[Time left in the [Private Conversation] - 1 Minute 21 Seconds]

"We need to wrap up. I'll get my hands on some ways to protect us in similar ways in the future, so we can keep talking then. But otherwise, on your own, never bring up anything that I just told you, okay? Just trust me that I know what I'm talking about. And if I act weird... you know, that's why."

Sam nodded his head, "Right, of course. I just want to know one more thing that you haven't quite said. How are you back? Did the Summoner just release you at some point?"

"... No. When a summoner dies, all their contracts are immediately cancelled, even the type I was under."

"So..."

"Yeah. They died, in the second to last quest."

The pair stepped out of the office together. A few people had been standing a small distance away, particularly the folk that had been in the meeting room with Sam earlier. Now, around twenty minutes later, they had been waiting and started to get worried. After all, Sam just jumped up and ran out at some point.

"Sorry, I've got to talk to them again. They're some coworkers and a few higher-ups in the other companies in the building," Sam explained. He looked at Ashton and smiled, giving him another hug, "I'm happy you're okay, Ash. And about what you told me, I'm going to keep quiet about. I'll take it to my grave with me."

"... I hope by then it won't need to be a secret anymore, I just can't afford to draw too much bad attention yet," Ashton pointed out, glancing to the side, "The attention I'm already getting is bad enough."

[[Observer in the Veil] is curious about the private conversation]

[[Observer in the Veil] promises many riches if you tell him]

[[Observer in the Veil] asks what you want in return]

Ashton let out a long sigh, waving away the messages. He wished he could just 'mute' constellations, but of course, it wasn't that easy. So... ignoring them was the easiest thing he could do.

"By the way, I need a few things before you head back to those guys," Ashton explained, and Sam looked at him with a raised brow.

"What's that? We don't have a lot to give you right now either, honestly. We've got some weapon replicas from one of our games, but that's all. They're not particularly sturdy, though..."

"Oh, no, I'm good as far as weapons are concerned. I've got a lifetime of experience with a staff, and I got that as a reward when I killed an Orc yesterday."

"... An orc? So they're also a thing?"

"Mhm, orcs are pretty common. We're in a city, so there'll be quite a lot of humanoid monsters," Ashton explained, "But anyway, right now I need you to tell me how to get to the roof. I'm going to be making some potions, and the fumes from that can get pretty... let's just say 'toxic', I guess."

Sam's eyes began to glisten. Ashton figured he would be interested in this, Sam wanted to become a chemist for a while before he discovered his passion for art, "Potions?"

"I'll show you later. I need to experiment some, anyway."

"Great!" Sam replied, quickly nodding his head, "We have a shared rooftop balcony, we've got some guys on the lookout there right now, but just tell them you're with me. Just go up to the top of the stairway."

"Neat. And beside that..." Ashton awkwardly scratched his neck, "Do you know anyone here that, uh... rolls their own cigarettes?"

Sam's light smile disappeared instantly, "Excuse me? I thought you stopped."

"I did! For a while. Then, you know... things got stressful, and when that thing heard me say to myself that I needed a cigarette, they kind of started experimenting on me with different herbs and tobacco blends. So yeah, now I'm more addicted than ever. But it's got its benefits, weirdly enough."

Sam narrowed his eyes a bit, "... If you say so. Uhm... there's this guy, a coworker of mine, he smokes, uhm... he smoked and rolled his cigarettes. It should be fine if you take it, hold on."

Ashton didn't push that question. It was pretty obvious what happened. Across the entire world, millions and millions of people must have died. And many more would continue to die in the future. Death was a thing that people had to get used to fast, and lingering on it for too long didn't help anyone.

Ashton waited for a moment, and Sam soon came back to him with a few things in hand. It was two packs of rolling papers, with 50 sheets each, an almost full bag of tobacco, and a small pack of filters.

"Thank you so much. Honestly, because I had already stopped here before, I don't have those physical cravings, but I just keep missing to do it the whole time," Ashton said as he grabbed everything from Sam.

"No worries. Oh, and I'll come upstairs to see you later about that whole phone thing."

"Coolio."

Sam raised a brow, "Coolio? At your age?"

With a shrug, Ashton turned around, flipping his friend off, "I may be the oldest man alive, but I'm still 23 years old."

Quietly laughing, the two briefly parted again. They both had a ton to take care of right now.

Ashton made his way upstairs to the rooftop balcony. It was quite pretty up here. A wooden terrace, tons of bushes and small trees in planters, some benches and tables to eat lunch at. The view was great, too, since this was one of the taller buildings in Drakewood.

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But... from up here, Ashton could see the damage that had already been done to this town. Smoke was rising in the distance from a fire that had started and couldn't be put out. The roads were abandoned and littered with bodies, of monsters and humans alike. It wasn't an easy sight to see, but... things would get worse from now on. Much, much worse.

Just as Sam had said, there were some people up here, apparently just keeping an eye out on any potential monsters in the area. It didn't seem like there were a ton of monsters with flight around here yet, so it was a pretty safe place. Ashton explained that he was Sam's friend, and one of them quickly went downstairs to double-check with him. Ashton didn't really care, and just sat down at one of the tables.

While he was sitting here, Ashton activated his channel ability for the Backpacker. Basically, what this allowed him to do was simple. He just became aware of the objects inside of the bag. He concentrated and mentally 'marked' a few of the objects in there, "Could you give me all of that real quick?"

Immediately, the Backpacker popped into existence, sitting right next to Ashton on the bench. They put their bag onto the table and started looking through to pull out all the tools and materials Ashton asked for.

The other people up here were a bit startled, but Ashton just waved them away.

Ashton put one of the bottles of water onto the table and called on undine again. They quickly came to be, this time with a fresh batch of water. This was why these sorts of elementals were great to have - especially lesser elementals were fairly easy to 'recharge' so you could have them by your side all the time. Unless they refused the offering for whatever reason, of course, but that shouldn't happen as long as Ashton treated these guys well.

"I need to dry out all of these plants here. Is that something you can do already?" he asked, not sure if the undine had the strength for it yet, but the water elemental quickly got to work.

The leaves, petals, grasses, and stalks that were gathered in front of Ashton quickly shrunk and wilted slightly as the water was sucked from them. They were sorted in small tupperware boxes already so that Ashton could easily keep them, so now he was able to just grind them down with a spoon. As dried as they were now, they basically fell apart with the slightest touch. The water from each type of plant was put into a different small jar.

He then grabbed a small pinch of tobacco and placed it onto the rolling paper, sprinkling a bit of each of the powdered, dried plants onto it. After putting the filter into place, he quickly rolled himself a cigarette.

Using one of the lighters he got at the convenience store before, Ashton lit it up, and looked inwardly at the salamander.

"Oh, stop pouting, do you really want to be used as a lighter?" he smiled a bit, watching as the elemental settled back down. He put the cigarette into his mouth and breathed in.

The tobacco was harsh and rough. There were a ton of additives in there, so it tasted quite different, but he would get used to it. His focus was rather the other things he had added to the cigarette.

Basically, right now, Ashton was taking control of the bit of mana around him. He couldn't do a ton, but moving it so that some mana would be filtered through the cigarette was easy enough. Closing his eyes, he tried to focus on not the taste, but rather how this cigarette made him feel.

Some of the dull, persistent pain all over his body calmed down a bit. As he breathed out the smoke, he felt the lingering sensation on the inside of his mouth, and a smile formed, "Okay, perfect. I can use them to make healing potions, after all."

Of course, what Ashton was doing right now was to just simulate potential combinations of ingredients. It wasn't a perfect guideline, obviously, since burning plants could often change the effect to an extreme degree, and the tobacco could also sometimes alter aspects of it. Plus, brewing potions was a complicated process where things had to be fine-tuned heavily.

But for someone that had as much experience, both in being a guinea pig for different herb mixes, as well as brewing potions, Ashton could at least use this method to tell the standard, baseline effects of certain plants and how they interacted with each other.

Plus, though they weren't exactly as strong as potions, there were also ways to imbue similar magical effects into cigarettes if he mixed them right, plus plenty that potions weren't suited for, so this was a good way to test how plants reacted to being burned.

And well, Ashton also just enjoyed the sensation of smoking different herb mixtures and wanted to find something similar to his favourites from the other world, Lumia.

This... wasn't it. It wasn't bad, though, but it wasn't quite how he was used to yet. It might be because of the low amount of mana in the plants and the lack of any mana in the tobacco, but it just felt off.

Even so, it was a good start. Ashton grabbed the pot and the camping stove, and then pulled out one of the water bottles, filled with water from the well in Market Street, purified with the undine's help. He poured in the liquid pulled out of the plants first - it wasn't a lot, but it could still boost the effects to some degree if treated before being reintroduced to the actual plants. After that, he put in the rest of the water he needed from the bottle, bringing it up to a simmer. Again, the salamander was annoyed, but Ashton didn't know what else to do, since he didn't have a good setup to safely use the salamander for these things yet. Especially not up here where practically every surface was made of wood he wanted to be careful.

Once the water simmered, Ashton crushed up some more of the small, weak magic stones and added the resulting powder into the water. By mixing things while introducing his own mana, he could make the powder dissolve into the water fully.

Ashton waited for a while until the water became a little more viscous and then turned off the heat. Once the water calmed, he poured in a little of his mana and used it to affect the state of the magic in the water to force it to 'accept' things more easily. Basically, the magic would encase and absorb foreign magics far more easily now.

And then, it was time to add in the ground-down plants from earlier. Flower petals, some grass, though he kept out one sort of leaf, from one of the trees in the botanical gardens, that seemed to mess things up a little bit in the cigarette, and then added a few other materials that weren't directly dried, which he already knew to have the qualities he needed.

Some of the liquid from inside of the blue moondew, a fraction of an ounce of kobold liver, and even some of the algae that Ashton used to make the aquatic ink.

More and more, the 'liquid' inside of the pot became more viscous. He turned up the heat a bit more again, and once the materials seemed incorporated well enough, Ashton brought the sticky, almost gooey substance, to a bubbling point. With another slight nudge of his own mana, Ashton adjusted the state of the magic within, and practically instantly, the thick substance turned into a translucent, red liquid barely thicker than water.

That was the sign of success he was looking for.

He waited for the liquid to cool down, and then poured it carefully into one of the empty, clean plastic bottles.

Ashton had just created this world's first Healing Potion.

Sam stepped out of the meeting room, exhausted. He could feel a headache coming on. One of those massive, annoying migraines that you couldn't get rid of even if you took pain meds, just because it was so persistently annoying.

The world had gone to shit. And all that those old farts in that meeting room could think of was how to protect themselves. How to let other people do the work for them.

And it was hard to figure out what exactly he was supposed to do in situations like this. His boss was a good guy, but he was also kind of a pushover, and immediately let everyone else walk all over him just now. It was only because Sam ended up talking to the other employees at Calibur that some kind of order was set up, and that they had groups helping others clear this ridiculous quest. If he hadn't done that, nothing would have happened yet.

'Is that why I got that constellation following me around? Ashton said I shouldn't engage with it too much,' Sam thought, slightly scratching his beard. He usually cleans up and trims it every single day, but he wasn't able to do it last night. It felt... weird.

Sam felt smelly, dirty, and unkempt, though realistically, he was probably one of the few people here that were still well put together. Especially the folk that came here to take refuge were looking extremely rough.

"... Would things have been different if Ashton hadn't warned me..?"

He would like to think that he would have adjusted fast, but... during that initial wave of monsters, if he hadn't pulled everyone back from the windows and stayed quiet, things might have gotten pretty fucking bad.

He climbed up the stairs to the rooftop. There were a ton of things that he wanted to ask Ashton, but it was hard to figure out what to ask without referencing that place, 'Lumia'. Apparently, he could talk about it if he was vague, but vagueness wasn't what Sam wanted to know. Either way, whether or not Ashton could give him answers, he was the key to surviving all of this. Sam just had to do what he said, and things would probably go alright. And of course, he was Sam's best friend. He trusted Ashton with his life anyway.

With a smile, he stepped onto the rooftop, excited to keep talking to Ashton about what was going on, but when he actually laid eyes on his friend... he didn't quite know what to think.

Ashton was butt naked, wrapping himself in bandages.

"Oh! Already done with the meeting?" he asked with a smile, simply continuing on as if it were the most normal thing in the world. The people that Sam had asked to stick around up here to watch the surrounding were doing an extremely thorough job at looking into the distance, rather than at Ashton.

"Dude, what are you doing?" Sam asked, taking off his jacket. As he rushed over, he pressed it onto Ashton's shoulders.

"Ouch!" Ashton flinched away, "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm treating myself. I got pretty damn hurt last night, and lesser potions are more effective when applied directly to the wound."

"Okay sure, but why are you doing it-" Sam started, looking around to see if anyone was watching, before stopping himself. He pulled the jacket away again, looking his friend up and down, "Did you just say you got hurt?"

It didn't take long for Sam to see what Ashton was talking about, either. He had wrapped up his shoulders already, but he had cuts at the edges of his stomach and all over his legs, not to mention the scratches on his back. The individual wounds didn't seem like the worst thing in the world, mostly surface level scratches or cuts that you could get while cooking, but the sheer volume made them a serious danger.

"It's nothing big, I can handle a bit of pain," Ashton said, simply continuing on to treat himself. He held the plastic bottle with the opaque red liquid in it up to a gauze, soaking it in the potion a little, before pressing it onto one of the more serious wounds, "Plus, I had undine's help to clean up all my wounds, too. They weren't really looking too good, and I might have a bit of a fever, but it's not a biggie."

"Not a- Ashton, how did this even happen?"

"Oh, okay, so, there was this hobgoblin in market street, leading a small camp of... thirty or so goblins? Maybe forty, I don't remember. But yeah, I fought all of them and got stabbed a couple of times, but overall I think I'm doing pretty okay. And with this potion, my wounds should be healed overnight. There might be some light scarring, though."

Sam stared at his friend, who just casually continued treating himself like it wasn't anything special. It felt like a mass of iron was sitting in his stomach.

"... Need any help?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, could you take a look at my back? I can't quite tell where everything is back there."

Stolen novel; please report.

Of course, Sam did as he was asked, and wordlessly so. He helped Ashton wrap himself up, and then just watched his friend get dressed again.

And then, Ashton sat back down at the table and started rolling himself another cigarette.

"Are you... okay? Are you not in any pain?" Sam wondered, though that question felt immediately and instantly ridiculous. Obviously it would hurt, there was no way it wouldn't. But Ashton's reply didn't help alleviate that weight of concern at all.

"Well, it hurts, but it's nothing I can't handle," he pointed out, grabbing a small, dried leaf and crumbling it into the cigarette. Sam looked down at it, and back at Ashton.

He scoffed a bit, "What are you doing? You know that's not healthy, right? You can't just smoke everything."

"Technically you can, if the fire is hot enough," Ashton replied with a laugh, "If you use the right materials and breathe in enough magic as you do, you can get similar effects to potions through these, plus a whole bunch of other ones. Though, for now, it's just a good way to get a grasp on what the materials you're working with can do. I had a good guess for what the plants I gathered earlier could do, but I wanted to double-check it."

Sam took a look at the small piles of different plants that Ashton had gathered around him. They didn't look particularly special. Different flower petals, grasses, and just a big green rolled up leaf. There even seemed to be some basil there.

"How could these be useful?" Mostly, Sam was nervous about what kind of stuff Ashton had just put all over his body onto his open wounds.

He looked up and quickly grabbed a bit of the ground-up, dried rose petals, "Well, lots of plants have medicinal purposes, and these are super similar to ones I knew from... before. Let's take roses. From what I can tell, they have anti-inflammatory qualities, calm the heartbeat, and even helped my mana flow a bit better. Basil is antibacterial to some degree, and so is this grass that I picked out. Since I let my wounds fester all night and day until now, I needed to make sure that I got that kind of relief from my potion. For pain relief, I used some peppermint, and though it's not the strongest effect in the world, as long as it can help relax my tense muscles, it's good enough," Ashton grabbed the large, rolled-up leaf, the tentacle of the blue moondew, "But this here is the most important part. It's stock-full of magic, more so than any of these other plants, and it can help speed up wound healing, which is why I used this as the centre of the potion this time. I supported that with some Micckri- wait, no, sorry, on the sign it said... uh, yarrow? It's so similar that I got confused, sorry. Anyway, I put it all together and managed to make a potion. It's not all that powerful yet, mostly because these plants are low in mana, but still."

Sam stared at Ashton, "Right, about that... magic and mana, that stuff is just real now?"

With a clenched fist, Ashton nodded, "Yes. Annoyingly enough. It's being funnelled into this world, specifically through focus-points called 'mana-wells'. Most dry up pretty fast, within a few hours or a couple days, but others can stick around for weeks or months at a time. More powerful monsters are placed there, 'boss monsters'. Later on, some of them will have dungeons form around them."

"Okay, wait, sorry, this is all just... a lot, can you give me a second?" Sam grabbed his bag that he brought up here with him, and then took out a notebook and a pen, quickly starting to take notes on what Ashton was saying.

"And mana wasn't a thing at all before? Or otherwise, I figure we would have been able to make 'potions' that can heal people overnight before?"

"Right, exactly. This world didn't have the capacity for mana until now, very few do before the system comes along. And while mana is very powerful, both us and nature can accept it very easily. You must also have plenty of mana flowing inside of you already. Actually, there's this neat trick you can do with the wisp, one of of my other summons. I'll try it out later."

Though Sam seemed excited at first, the mention of the summons startled him. He had been thinking about this the entire meeting, "I'm sorry for asking so many questions right now, but... aren't you doing the... you know... exact same thing?" he whispered, but Ashton sighed, shaking his head.

"No need to whisper, constellations can 'hear' you anyway," he explained, "It's fine to be vague, as long as you're not specific, it'll be fine."

At the end of the day, Ashton's knowledge of summoning magic was already suspicious enough, to the point where just making vague references to his past was fine. The main thing he wanted to prevent was turning himself into 'that thing's summon' in the eyes of the constellations. He spent far too long being attached to them, and refused to let that happen anymore. Only once he was powerful enough to stand on his own could he reveal that full past.

But... Of course, Sam's concerns were understandable, "No. I touched on it before, but the contracts that I make basically just call out to the being I wish to contract, and if they're happy to oblige, they'll come and join me. Just as I can, they can cancel the contract at any time they wish, and they can even unsummon themselves if they feel like they've stuck around in my vessel for too long. Though, I'll try to do that myself before they get bothered by it," Ashton explained, "There are cases like the Backpacker, though, beings that prefer being in one's vessel at almost all times during the terms of their contract. Or constructs, that are basically conceptual egos that I'm giving a body, so if they're not with me at all times, they're kind of... stuck. But either way, they're just as much in control as I am. They can refuse all of my requests as well, obviously."

He looked into his vessel with a smile, looking the summons that he currently had with him, as well as the space occupied by the contracts that he had formed. Right now, the wisp was the only one that wasn't summoned, while the others stuck around.

"Oh. So... they're more like your coworkers?"

"Kind of, I guess? That's how I'm used to it, at least," he pointed out. He was one of them for a while, after all, so the only experience he had with summons was having them be on equal footing, anyway, "But if you don't mind me asking, what's that 'community' thing you mentioned before?"

Sam raised his brows, remembering that Ashton didn't have his phone, "Right, sorry. At the start of the first quest, we all got this message."

He turned his screen around, and Ashton quickly read through it. It was short, but clear. It wasn't a text, but a pop-up screen that didn't seem to want to close.

This was new. This wasn't a thing in Lumia at all.

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